CHENNAI: Explaining the strides made in industrial manufacturing in Tamil Nadu over the years, Minister for Industries MC Sampath on Thursday claimed that the State had the capacity to produce a two-wheeler in every 6 seconds and a car in every 20 seconds.
He said the State had manufactured a total of 10.89 lakh cars, 1.31 lakh heavy vehicles and 31.84 lakh two-wheelers during 2017-18.
“We have the capacity to manufacture a two-wheeler in every six seconds, a car in every 20 seconds and heavy vehicle in every two minutes,” Minister Sampath claimed.
Differentiating between the Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) and the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the minister said that a few were attempting to create a wrong impression that Tamil Nadu was lagging behind in attracting investments.
From April 2000 to 2011, Tamil Nadu had attracted 33,024-crore FDI while 1.18 lakh crore investments were attracted during 2011-17, he said, adding that Tamil Nadu had got 37 special economic zones.
In terms of attracting the FDI, Tamil Nadu stands fourth in the country, Sampath said and noted that 582 Japanese firms had opened business in the State.
Global Investors Meet 2015
Referring to the investment proposals clinched at the Global Investors Meet (GIM) held in 2015, Sampath noted that 98 MoUs were signed with a total investment of `2,42, 160 crore creating 4,70, 065 jobs.
“With constant review and monitoring, around 62 projects have been successfully progressing at various stages of execution,” he informed the House while replying to a debate on the demand for grants to his department.
He expressed hope that the GIM slated for January 23 and 24, 2019 would be a big hit and major investment proposals worth 54,000 crore were under finalisation now.
Renewing lease for closed mineral quarries
Steps are being taken to get renewal for the mineral quarries shut down for operating without the mandatory environmental clearance by treating them as special cases, said Minister for Law, Mines and Minerals C Ve Shanmugam
“As many as 2,048 mineral quarries were shut down for running without environmental clearance. We have appealed to the Centre to treat them as special case and renew the lease. It has agreed to it,” he said
According to the minister, 599 lessees have sought renewal of the lease while the rest are yet to approach since the lease period has lapsed
Crackdown on illegal mining has resulted in collection of 49.62 crore, besides impounding of 17,340 vehicles
Steps to simplify e-Way bill procedures
Chennai: Minister for Fisheries D Jayakumar, who is the authorised representative of the State to attend the GST Council, said on Thursday that steps were being taken to simplify E-way bill procedures to make it more transporters-friendly. Referring to the GST, he told the Assembly that thanks to the efforts of the Tamil Nadu government, 156 goods and 100 services were exempted from GST.
Online mechanism to monitor sugar industry
Chennai: An integrated online mechanism will be created at a cost of `55 lakh for monitoring cooperative and public sector sugar mills by monitoring cane crushing, installing sensors to capture data on milling and inventory of monitoring the management, Minister MC Sampath said.
Reimbursement of ISO certification charges
Chennai: A scheme for reimbursement of charges paid for getting ISO certification for entrepreneurs in MSME sector will be implemented at an outlay of 2 crore, according to minister P Benjamin. For each certificate, 100 per cent charges or a maximum of 1 lakh will be reimburse, he said in the Assembly.
Coconut fibre production centre
Chennai: Minister P Benjamin said that a coconut fibre and board manufacturing unit would be set up at Tiruvarur which has the potential for coconut-related industries. The government will spend 5 crore for the unit.